We’ve seen a lot of anniversaries lately. Chloé celebrated sixty years. So did Missoni, and Max Mara. Moschino looked back at thirty years with the best show of the season in Milan. Miu Miu turned twenty. And Armani had their traveling retrospective Couture shows. It seems everyone was and is looking at the past, embracing legacy and history, lending a giant push to the vintage vanguard. But no brand hits home harder than Diane Von Furstenberg‘s, because her wrap dress, turning forty this year, has affected generations of women, young and old. There hasn’t been a piece of clothing so classic and relevant since the Chanel jacket. From the moment of its conception in 1974 to the most recent in-store collection, it has been feminine, flattering and according to Diane, empowering. The iconic dress has been made in every print, fabric and modification one can imagine, because it never fails. And so it was only fitting that this very special dress should have a proper birthday party…

I was invited to the opening night of the anniversary exhibition at LACMA on January 9th in Los Angeles. It was spectacular. Not only because just about everyone in Hollywood had gathered to bestow their congratulatory wishes upon Diane in person, but also because of the scale of the exhibit itself. Two hundred mannequins in vintage and new colorful wrap dresses were set up in a giant space, covered from top to bottom in extra-enlarged DFV prints. The entry way was plastered with fashion magazine clippings of Diane and models wearing her dresses. And an annex room showed all of Diane’s artwork and photographs. I had to go back the next day to take it all in again, without any of the nightly distractions and came home with one almighty epiphany: I was also born in 1974! But the most important message I took with me, and hopefully every likeminded woman that visited, is the exhibition’s tag line, and one of Diane’s many inspiring motto’s: “Feel like a Woman, Wear a Dress.” Congratulations Diane! You are every woman.